Wrong Post Office!

[KDailey]

Errrgg!! I ordered chicks last week from Ideal and they're supposed to be here today, Wednesday. My actual home address is Bronson but I never go there (we live out in the sticks) but I work in Broaddus and the post office is right across the street. In order to save gas and a trip I asked my boss if I could use our work address as the shipping address so it would come to Broaddus and I'd be right across the street.

So I'm expecting the call this morning saying my chicks have arrived at the post office across the street. My phone rings, it's an unfamiliar number and I jump for joy until the lady says, "I have some chicks for Kaylea here at the Bronson post office..."

They close at the same time that I get off work and it's at least a 20 min drive between the two places so I'd never make it in time to get them. So now I have to depend on BF to go pick them up and check them all to make sure no one is dead or dying.

It's only 9:40am and that means 5 hours and 20 minutes at least until I get off work and another 15 minute drive home before I can see the little buggers! I can't take the suspense!

But why did they still go to Bronson when there wasn't a single thing in the address that said Bronson? Only Broaddus.

 

[Ceilismom]

I would imagine that someone at the PO in Bronson decided to be "helpful" and hold them for you instead of allowing them to be sent to the address on the box. You should see the trouble the postmistress in a neighboring town (population less than 1000) causes for the citizens there. They complain regularly, but they can't seem to get rid of her.

 

[MarinMama]

I have heard about this happening so I called the hatchery that I ordered from and asked what PO the delivery would go to. Then I called the PO a couple days before the delivery was expected to give them a heads up and my number just in case it wasn't on the box.

I also spoke to my regular delivery man and told him I was expecting a delivery of chicks and to please let me know when they arrived.

The chicks ended up coming a day EARLY. luckily i made all the calls I did because the PO called me immediately and actually made a special delivery for me because I had just pt my babies to sleep and would not be able to pick up the chicks for 2 hours.

 

[KDailey]

I went to the post office they were supposed to go to and warned them that they were coming. If they arrived on Friday they would be closed before I got off work but the lady said she'd be happy to drop them off with me at work if I didn't come get them before they closed, we're just a block or two away.

But because the chicks went to the wrong post office I wasn't able to warn them about the chicks coming. They did call me first thing this morning to let me know they were there and asked wether or not I wanted them kept at the post office or delivered. I told her to hold them so BF could come get them.

But then BF txts me and says he doesn't have enough diesel to get there and back so I had to ask my boss if I could get off work early so I can go get them. Thank god my boss and coworkers are so great! They said no problem and are going to let me off an hour early. Way more than I even need but I'll take what I can get

 

[rancher hicks]

I too called the po and stopped in to let them know I was expecting chicks. What's more I gave them my number to call me when they arrived, which was 6:30 am. Which they did and I went and got them. The PO doesn't open til 8 but the truck arrives at 6:30.

Now in your case, I have to ask since I worked for the PO.

Did the address on the credit card you used have your home address on it? If you paid by check did you make a note to have the delivery address different from your home address? If the address on the box of chicks has your work address on it then you have a legitimate complaint.

Did you have them sent to "your name" in care of xyz company at 123 street, anywhere , state, 34567? Did you speak to a representative on the phone or order on line?

Just trying to help figure out what went wrong cuz Lord knows you'll be ordering more chicks and chicken stuff. It's just life, it's just the way it is.

And so it goes,

Rancher

 

[KDailey]

When I put in the shipping address for the chicks I put my work address. I did go talk to the lady at the post office that was supposed to get the chicks. She said she'd call and all that or even bring them to me if I didn't get off work before they closed. She was very nice and friendly.

So I have no idea why they went to Bronson. The address that is associated with my credit card isn't even changed to Bronson yet, it's still my old address, so I wouldn't think they'd have gotten the address from there.

It's not just a real big problem, it's just that I wasn't prepared for it. I didn't talk to this post office because they weren't supposed to go there. And now I have to drive 20 minutes. Other than that it's just irratating really

 

[ScottyHOMEy]

The routing of mail is not always as simple as folks might imagine. Here's an example of why you might have gotten a call from Branson.

I was postmaster in Bucksport, ME. The mail was brought to my office on a truck that ran a route that started at our regional distribution center in Bangor. That truck dropped mail at two offices before arriving at Bucksport, after which it crossed the Penobscot and dropped mail at three other post offices as it made its way up the other side of the river back to Bangor. But there was mail for more than those six office involved. Bucksport was unique among those six, as the mail for five other post offices was dropped at Bucksport, where it was transfered to three other routes that then carried mail down to those five other offices. It's a common arrangemnt for such examples where the constraints of time, scale and distance do not warrant running the larger trucks out to the five smaller offices such as those for which Bucksport was the transfer point. some may snicker at the concept, but efficiencies in time and cost are critical in the mail business.

The truck from Bangor ran three times a day, in the early morning with the last of the mail to be delivered that day, in the afternoon with more mail for delivery the next day and to pick up the mail we collected to be sent to Bangor for sorting, and a final run in the early evening to pick up the last of the mail to be sorted in Bangor. The smaller routes from Bucksport to the other offices ran only in the morning. The mail that arrived in Bucksport on the two later trips intended for those other offices would be held there overnight to go out the next morning.

The timing of chicken shipments is handled carefully by the hatcheries and the Postal Service, so it was a rare occurence, but on those occasions when we'd have chicks arrive on that afternoon truck, whether for Bucksport or for addresses at one of the other five offices (meaning we had no delivery or highway route to get them delivered) you can bet we were on the phone, calling the number on the box, offering to make arrangements for same-day pickup if that is what the customer wanted. If we couldn't contact anybody, the chicks would be secured in an area with the most appropriate temperature (according to the season) until we could get them on the regular runs the next morning. Many is the time that I or one of my clerks would go back down to the office in the evening to meet a customer for an after-hours delivery. Or the times one of us would deliver them personally after the office closed. On a few occasions, I even took them home to have the customer pick them up at my house later in the evening. Quite often, the only chicks we'd receive on the afternoon runs were only afte the Bangor office had called the folks expecting them, who asked for them to be sent to Bucksport, and Bangor would unfailingly call us to let us know what arrangements had been made.

I'm in Maine. Though I know a lot about how the Postal Service works, I don't pretend to know how mail is routed in Missouri. My best guess, from what you described, is that the mail for Broaddus is transferred at Branson, that your chicks arrived there after their last trip to Broaddus for the day was gone, and that they were trying to do the right thing in offering you the option to pick your chicks up a day earlier than they would have been delivered to your workplace.

Apologies. I'm being terse and I don't mean to scold. But posties go to great lengths to take care of chick and bee shipments. If it frustrated you, if only because it meant a delay in your schedule, I can understand that. I just hope it really wasn't irritating, because, truth to tell, I think you were being done a favor.

 

[catsew]

Quote:
We have the same type of problem with our post office. They selectively decide which mail you should get. But seem to have no problem giving you the wrong mail. I keep hoping that ours will be one of the ones to close if they ever actually getting around to closing post offices. The lady that works there is horrible and mean and they're only open 2 hours a day anyway.

 

[Stacykins]

Happened to my cousin when she ordered a batch of 25 cornish X. The chicks were sent to a post office TWO HOURS AWAY! Seriously, she got the "we has your chickies" call from them. Wasn't even in the same county! Needless to say, she told them she felt bad, but unless they came to the post office associated with her address, she couldn't get them because of work issues and she couldn't take at least 4 hours off to go get them before the office closed. Of course they had all died by the time they arrived a few days later at the local post office. Second shipment went to the right place in time.

 

[rancher hicks]

Seems to me that reporting it to the hatchery might help. Plus you have a representative in each state that covers your area and a letter to them might help prevent these things from happening. Not a nasty one of course but one that might get passed back to the offending post master in your area.

Of course you can always check locally for chicks. I hatch Delawares and will be hatching orps of three colors good lord willing and the occasional frizzle and EE.